Fish Instead of Hunt

Whether you are using social networking, cold calling, warm calling, or you are growing accounts, it’s important to use a fisherman’s mentality, instead of a hunter’s.

That’s because no one wants to be hunted.

Think about it for a second: what does an animal’s instinct tell them to do when they feel like they are being hunted? To run away and as fast as possible.

Hint, this is what your buyers are currently doing to your bad sales emails and calls or voicemails.

Now think about what a fish does when it sees something they like on the fishing line. They come to sniff it out, take a nibble or even go all in for the chomp if there is enough value there.

Isn’t that all a salesperson wants?

It doesn’t matter what you have to offer to a buyer, if you don’t have their attention, your message will fall on deaf ears.

Today, the customer is in control of the buying process and sales reps are in for a long miserable journey if they think they can force their customers to buy on their terms. If the buyer is not ready yet, accept that and stay top of mind throughout this process, not by checking in every month asking, “are you ready now?” or, “hey, how about now?”

Instead, provide them with relevant content that addresses their top issue showing your genuine intent and expertise on the subject matter.

Or, one of my personal favorites: provide a valuable piece of content that addresses an issue that your product or service doesn’t even solve.

Don’t you think they will appreciate that you are going out of your way to add value in an area where you don’t benefit monetarily? This is huge and proves that you are an advocate for them.

Always sell with a give first mindset, leading with education and insights, and not with a self-serving mindset. If you don’t care about them why should they care about you?

It may be time for you to put down the elephant gun, go load up on resources at the content bait shop, buy yourself a fishing pole and start providing your buyers some snackable content so you can start real conversations with them around what they are focused on. These are the conversations you want to have — where they actually get engaged with the seller, because you have been valuable and genuine in your outreach.

Not an email or call that says, “here is what we do, I know we can add value to your business, can I get 15 minutes?”